Life, Love, and How Much I Hate Luke Castellan
by maxride45
Summary: Percy FINALLY got Annabeth back after Athena stole her away, winning Athena's approval and the most beautiful girl in the world. Now, five years later, our favorite demigods are 22, and Luke is back--in search of Annabeth. Rated T because I'm cautious.
1. Chapter 1

**1**

Ever had your world turned upside down in one moment? I have.

Multiple times.

Once upon a time I found the perfect girl. We met at Camp when we were twelve. She was taller than me, and beautiful and perfect and controlling and smart. I was awkward and smelled like most twelve year old boys. We grew up together from that point on. And as soon as I wasn't so awkward, she saw me like no one else did, and I saw her like I had never seen anyone. Suddenly life would always be ok as long as she was there with me, alive and healthy and beautiful. And there she was, always.

Except when the guy she used to like was butting in and trying to steal her from me.

Now there were a few reasons this wasn't going to work out for him:

A.) She doesn't love him. She liked him once, simply because she was young and he was a cute, older guy. Now she saw that he was an idiot—after watching him try to take over the world, and watching him give up his body so Kronos would have a vessel to control from, and watching me grow into a much smarter man than Luke ever was. Luke had become an idiot, a disgrace to the gods, and a man Annabeth wanted nothing to do with.

B.) Annabeth's mom is kind of strict about what guys she hangs out with. I discovered that firsthand five years before the incident. Yeah, Luke first appeared and battled me the night of my final claiming of Annabeth. But he then disappeared off the face of the earth, having gotten his butt whooped. Annabeth and I were seventeen, Luke was… old. Anyway, if Luke, son of Hermes, servant of Kronos, freak of the universe, and seven years older than us, ever tried to get to this daughter of Athena, I had this feeling he would quickly find himself fallen in battle.

C.) As long as I am with Annabeth, no mere demigod is going to hurt her. And I know Luke wouldn't be good for her. She knows it too. She would end up in a situation like Persephone if he ever got to her-imprisoned for some length of time in a place she couldn't help but hate, with no one but him as her companion. I would _kill him_. Luke may have passion on his side, and revenge (he never did like me…) but I have passion, revenge, love, protective instinct, the enchantment of the River Styx, the gods, and most of the Greek world on my side if it comes down to it. I have connections. You get connections when you save the world.

I should probably give you some background on my life at this point, five years after I finally managed to get Athena to like me back when we were seventeen.

My name is Percy Jackson. You know that. I am 22 years old. That might take some processing. Go ahead, I'll wait…

Ok, long enough. I am in college at NYU, studying to be a marine biologist. What else would I do? I can't even focus on anything else. I major in marine biology and have two minors, in the study of Ancient Greece and Ancient Greek Literature (a.k.a. MYTHS). You really can study anything in college. Annabeth is also at NYU majoring in Architecture, minoring in Engineering and Ancient Greek Lit (with me). We each have our own apartments, conveniently located within the same complex a couple blocks from school. The nice thing about New York: no matter where you live, you know somewhere there is going to be a good restaurant or two, a good coffee shop, a good book store (Annabeth…), and anything else you could possibly need. I love New York.

Annabeth and I were in our last year of college. Soon, school would be out forever, and I could not WAIT for that. Once we were out of college, we wanted to go back and help out at camp in the summers. Who knows, maybe there will be a dorky young son-of-whoever and a pretty little daughter-of-who-knows-who who end up falling in love and going on the adventures of a lifetime together? Crazy things happen, and I don't plan on not being around to see them. Besides, Chiron needs all the help he can get, right? Since the war ended, more and more kids have been realizing who-or what-they are.

It was a totally normal day. Kind of. It was a Saturday-no school-and I was sitting in my room studying for our final finals (finally). I was jittery, because I knew Annabeth would come in any minute, looking even more beautiful than normal, because it would be the five year anniversary of the day I got her back from her mom and saved her from Luke-and the ten year anniversary of the day we met, just before summer break of sixth grade. I couldn't wait for her to walk in those doors…

Annabeth and I had great apartments. Her's was on the top floor of the weathered white-painted brick building, where she could look out and see all the buildings and think about the architecture. Mine was one of few on the ground level, looking out over a small garden-complete with a saltwater fountain, thanks to my dad. I had white wooden French doors with chipped paint and dirty, old, blurry glass. These doors opened out into the courtyard. Annabeth had decorated the place for me, with pale ocean blue walls, driftwood accents and sea shells placed at random. It looked great and reminded me of my cabin, which I knew was what she was going for.

She had keys to my apartment, and I to hers, so I was just waiting for her to walk in. I got up and moved out to the sand colored couch, putting my feet up on a driftwood coffee table. A small black box sat on the table. I stared at it like it would jump out any minute and turn into a Hydra when I realized I should probably get dressed. It was eleven and I was still in boxers and shirtless.

I picked up the box and ran to my room, stripping my clothes off and taking a quick shower before pulling on khaki shorts and a shirt I knew Annabeth liked—short sleeved, button up, with thin seaweed green, ocean blue, sky blue and Annabeth's-eyes gray pinstripes. I left it unbuttoned over a white v-neck t-shirt and put on my camp necklace. Can you tell Annabeth helps with my clothes now? Yeah…

I heard the door open quietly and called out "One minute, Annabeth!" from the bathroom, sticking the black box in my pocket and giving myself a pep talk. I walked out of the room, grabbing my wallet, keys, and Riptide (in pen form) from the table next to my bed and slipping on dark brown leather sandals.

I walked out into the living room to see Annabeth still coming in, sun beams surrounding her as they streamed through the open door and filtered through the blurred glass. She quite literally lit up my living room, even more than normal.

I hadn't seen her look like this since she came out of Circe's, and that wasn't the same, because it wasn't her then. This was still her, just more beautiful than anything or anywhere or anyone I had ever seen.

I stopped breathing and didn't know when I would start again.

Annabeth walked in and I knew today would be incredible. She wasn't wearing her usual jeans and a t-shirt, as if she'd anticipated the fact that today was important. She was wearing a white summer dress, cut off just above her knees, with spaghetti straps and a low v-neckline and made of a thin flowing fabric. It was so completely un-Annabeth that it was totally Annabeth. She was wearing her camp necklace, too, and the silver owl earrings her mom had given her, and tan leather gladiator-style sandals. Her hair glistened in the sun in curls even more perfect than normal, forming gold and blond ringlets that framed her face. Her gray eyes glittered as she closed the door and said "Ready, Seaweed Brain?" as if we were kids again, headed on a mission as casual as any, when in fact we were headed out on the day of a lifetime.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I replied truthfully. She laughed and reached back for my hand as she opened the door.

"Come on!" she exclaimed, pulling me out in to the garden and locking the door behind her. We walked out to the fountain and made sure we had anything we needed before heading out to the bus stop. Annabeth didn't know exactly what we were doing today-mostly because I refused to tell her. But she was going to love every minute of it.

Or so I thought.


	2. Chapter 2

**By the way, this story will all be in Percy's point of view, I think… Yeah I think it will. Maybe once in a while I will switch to a different POV, but I will try to make that as clear and understandable as possible so nobody gets confused—if you're like me, which I get the sense a lot of my readers are, then you get easily confused. :P**

**2**

As Annabeth dragged me to the bus stop I couldn't help but stare at her. Annabeth Chase, more beautiful than anyone or anything I had ever seen, in one of the most beautiful parts of New York, and headed out on the day of the life time with me, a dorky 22 year old who's greatest strength is either swimming or talking to fish (I'm still debating on that one).

As soon as we got to the stop I realized I'd forgotten one minor detail. And I was hungry.

"Hey Annabeth, we need food. I think I know the perfect place."

I ran back up to her apartment and grabbed a basket that Juniper had woven for her, a pale blue blanket my mom had given her, and a sandy colored cardigan sweater. I would be fine, she might get cold as it got later, and we were going to be out all day. I threw both in the basket and went back down.

"Alright, let's go," I said, grabbing her hand and leading the way.

"Where are we going?" she said with a smile, running a bit to catch up with me and then both of us walking normally.

"A little café that Thalia took me to once. It's called Café Angelique. Great food. I figure we can grab some sandwiches and head out on our first adventure of the day." I couldn't help but smile as wide as she did. Today was going to be perfect.

We picked up sandwiches at the café and walked back to the park to eat. The sun shined and the whole park glowed bright green, NYU students walking dogs or jogging or talking to friends or studying for finals. Definitely a college park. We sat on a bench in front of a fountain and ate the best sandwiches in the world. We didn't talk much-I was still half asleep and I think she was just wondering what I had planned for the day.

"So Percy, what exactly _are_ we doing today?"

Could she read my mind anymore? "Stuff," I replied through a mouthful of sandwich. She giggled and wiped some mayonnaise of the corner of my mouth.

"What kind of stuff?" she asked. Determined, isn't she?

"The kind of stuff you're going to love," I said with a big grin.

"Well you're here, so of course." She beamed at me before looking back down and taking a bite of sandwich. As soon as we finished out quiet lunch, we hopped on a bus (for real this time) and headed to our next destination-the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now I know what you're thinking-how many millions of times has Annabeth already been there? More than I can count. How many times has she been able to get _me_ to go? Never. It was a free ticket for her to walk around and tell me the history of every piece of artwork and force me to listen for a few hours, and I was completely willing. There was an exhibit on Ancient Greek stuff that I knew she'd been dying to go to, but getting passes was hard. But you see I know a guy… ok, so maybe Chiron pulled a few strings because they like teachers. I don't know how he did it really, but we had passes, and she didn't know yet.

When the bus let us of at the Met, she gave me a look like "Really? I really get to go in there with you for hours on end and you're not going to groan or ask when we're leaving and you're going to listen and walk around with me and not die of boredom?" So I picked her up and set her on the bottom step and kissed her, with her now at my eye level. She wrapped my hair around her fingers and pulled me closer for a moment before I pulled away, and reached down to my pocket to pull out the passes. She then screamed and jumped on me in a huge tackle-hug, and I carried her up the steps until we got to the doors. I put the basket in a coat check room (thank the gods for those) and we started walking around.

Finally being forced to listen to her, some of it was actually interesting. She knew every fact you could think of about each artist. Apparently, Monet's wife died of tuberculosis. And Van Gogh mostly painted a lot of trees. Yeah, ok, so that's most of what I got out of it, but when you're ADHD and Dyslexic, it's hard to remember things unless you're really into them. So she can remember all that stuff because she cares.

Then we went into the Greece exhibit, and I was fully engrossed. We actually found that we were telling each other facts or stories or myths instead of her doing all the talking. We ended up sitting on a bench in front of a huge print of the Parthenon, swapping stories and theories and ideas about why the Greeks did things the way they did, who we knew that might have been there, why are parents made such a big deal out of being patron of Athens, etc. It was around three when we decided to leave, having been there since about 12:30. Annabeth could have stayed there forever, but I convinced her we had other things to do—which we definitely did.

Next up, I was going to drag her off to every little hidden jewel of New York that I thought she'd missed growing up in Camp Half-Blood. I took her to the candy store where my mom used to work; on a tour of Times Square; to all the best stores and parks; eventually, we'd made it all over the state, and it was 7:00, and we were hungry (even having snacked at food stands while walking around). So I flagged down a taxi and we headed to dinner.

Now we were getting into the important part of the evening.

I knew we were a bit under-dressed for Periyali, but the place was great, and I had to take her. I'd made the reservations months ago, this place was in demand. And pretty close to home, too.

So the cab took us to this Greek restaurant called Periyali and the food was incredible. I felt like we were on Olympus. Best Greek food I'd had in a while.

Then we headed off to the real surprise of the day. I had rented a car and we were headed somewhere special. The little silver Prius was waiting for us outside. I helped her into the car and started driving. I knew the drive was going to be about an hour, so I'd loaded the car with some good music and we were good to go.

The drive was one of the best parts of the day. We were free to talk and laugh and sing horribly the whole hour-long drive down. This was my favorite stretch of the highway. So many memories. About halfway, in the middle of belting out "That's What You Get" by Paramore, Annabeth figured out where we were going.

"Oh my gods, are we going back to Camp?!" she yelled over the music. I laughed.

"Took you long enough!" She leaned over, though I was still driving, and kissed me on the cheek.

"You know you really shouldn't do that when I'm driving, it's going to distract me," I joked, turning my head to kiss her on the lips quickly. It was about 9:00 and the road was emptying out anyway-no car crashes (or Minotaurs) here.

We finally drove up Farm Road 3.14 and into Camp, passing the borders without problem. I guess being a half-blood never changes. Camp was almost empty, being still during the school year, but everyone recognized us. The current counselors told stories about us, I knew, and there was a picture of Annabeth, Grover, Rachel and I in front of the group of half-bloods who fought Kronos with us. The picture was taking after battle, in some of the carnage, but after we had healed everyone. I had my arm around Annabeth and Riptide in my hand. It really was a great picture. We knew that all the counselors made a show of pointing us out and telling stories of our greatest battles. We'd become camp legends. Actually, it felt great. I've never been into having attention, but somehow… knowing that campers just like I was had a great group of modern-day heroes to look up to was gratifying.

I parked the car at the base of the hill and grabbed the blanket and Annabeth's cardigan from the back, and we ran up to the Big House to tell Chiron-even though I'd already told him in an Iris message weeks before.

"Hey Chiron, just so you know, we'll be down on the beach now. Please don't let the Harpies eat us," I told him. He let out that laugh that reminded me of the days when he was just Mr. Brunner, my English teacher.

We ran down to the beach and collapsed, rolling down the dune that led down to the ocean, holding our breath and trying not to laugh so that we wouldn't breathe in any sand. Finally we landed and sat up, coughing out sand because not laughing at each other was impossible.

I stood and spread out the blanket and sat down, when Annabeth, still standing, reached for my hand, pulling me up and dragging me towards the water. She kicked her shoes off and I followed suit, running to the ocean and wading in to just above our knees. Of course I could have gone farther, and she could have too, but we didn't want to get completely soaking wet-it was getting colder.

We were still holding hands when she splashed some water on me and we got into a splash fight. I had no idea what time it was anymore, but the sun was going down and it was gorgeous. The pinks and oranges basking the puffy clouds were reflecting over the deep blue churning water, white crests of waves breaking in the distance and little rip currents tearing at our toes. Finally the water fight ended and Annabeth walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, pulling me closer, put her head on my chest and looked out at the sunset.

"It's so beautiful," she said.

"Not as beautiful as you." It was cheesy, but she squeezed a bit tighter for a second. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back for a moment before simply holding her and staring out at the ocean and the sky. I knew she was getting colder and needed to be warmed up a bit.

Staring out at the sunset, I knew the time was coming.

"I love you," she said, looking up at me with wide, sparkling gray eyes. In those eyes I had seen so many feelings expressed. Determinedness, absolute hatred, anger, frustration, friendship, hope fear, sadness, depression, excitement, joy, and for the last few years love like I had never seen. Before I knew it I was saying my thoughts out loud.

"Annabeth, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. When I first met you, I thought you were cute, but I was only half conscious. Then I got to know you a bit, and I despised you for being so much better than me at everything, and taking charge all the time. And then you told me our parents hated each other, and I thought '_Well, that explains a lot_.' Then I saw you with Luke and it annoyed me and I couldn't figure out why, but I wanted to punch him in the face. Now I know there were a lot of reasons for that, but that's not the point. Annabeth, over the years I have realized that I love you more than life itself. I've nearly given my life a couple times to save you, and I will always mean that. You're incredible, and without you, I don't know who or where I would be, and I probably wouldn't be able to find my keys in the morning."

She laughed a bit, and was absolutely beaming. I took a deep breath, heart pounding, and reached for the little black box in my pocket, kneeling despite the water, and taking Annabeth's hand.

"Wise Girl, will you marry me?" For a second she just stood there, still beaming, when finally her expression changed to surprise and ecstasy, even with some disbelief. I couldn't quite believe it myself, actually. I kept her hand in mine and stared up at her as she glanced from me to the white-gold band studded with tiny turquoise aquamarines and silver diamonds. Finally, after seconds that felt like hours, she looked straight into my eyes and spoke.

"Of course, Seaweed Brain," she laughed, a single un-Annabeth-like tear sliding down her cheek. I took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto her finger and stood, and she jumped up into my arms and kissed me. I kissed back and carried her back to the blanket and sat down with her in my lap and we just sat and kissed for a few minutes. Then I realized how cold she had to be and made her put the cardigan on, and she sat in my lap and stared out at the ocean for a few more minutes.

That's when everything went terribly wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys. Sorry about the cliff hangers accompanied by not updating in forever. I know it's annoying (in a kind of fun way, I know the feeling. I get it from reading Dancing-StarryEyedDemigod's work. I think she (I think she's a she… haha wow I don't even know :P) is my favorite author on FanFic :P I hope she was okay with me saying that haha :P) but I haven't even been home much, and when I have it's been busy. I mean I'm always busy, with Tae-Kwon-Do, Church and 2 youth groups, Girl Scouts (yes, yes I am a bit old to still be in G.S.), friends, school, and having recently gotten my first job. But things are extra busy as my grandma is dying of Breast Cancer, accompanied by Alzheimers (which is total crap, btw.). So… I felt the need to tell you cuz nothing else is a legitimate excuse for how much I've neglected you :P Haha :P Anyway, on to solve that little cliffy I gave you. It was a killer one, huh?**

**Oops. :P**

**Do I use too many cliffhangers or is it ok? Feedback please :)**

**Annabeth's POV, by the way. :P**

**3**

Percy and I were… alright fine I'm going to be brutally honest. Percy and I were making out when the best day of my life got slightly screwed up. Nothing could have completely countered that day, though. Seriously, best day of my life.

But when a dark form jumped over us and landed in front of us, I had flashbacks of five years before, and I knew that was the intent.

"Luke," I snarled, detaching myself from Percy.

"Annabeth," he said, too sweetly. "You look amazing."

He started walking towards us and reached down the brush his hand along my cheek. I knew Percy was just letting him get close, but I had no idea how fast he could be. Somehow Percy had thrown me behind him and gotten up, Riptide in sword form and in hand, and was behind Luke with the sword poised in front of his throat. I could see the faint confusion on Luke's face. He wasn't used to being beaten, but then again Percy was the first camper to disarm him on their first day sword fighting. He should have expected it. Percy stood behind Luke, not even panting, and I could only watch from the ground. I gathered up my strength and walked over to Luke, who couldn't even flinch, the blade was so close to his throat.

I walked over, wrapping the cardigan around me and crossing my arms, feeling self conscious with Luke looking at me.

"Luke," Percy and I said simultaneously. I let him go first. "Luke, you got a thing for Annabeth now?"

"Now and always," he replied.

"Ha," I scoffed. "Not always. Not when I wanted it. Not when I didn't. But now, when I would consider killing you for it, suddenly I'm incredible? No way, Luke."

I did the only thing I could think of. I slapped him across the scarred side of his face.

"Ouch," Percy taunted. I glared daggers at Luke, still recoiling from my slap. He looked back up, flipped his hair out if his face, and glared straight back.

"Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth…" he began. "You should know better."

"Why should I know better than to slap a jerk like you? Luke, I liked you once. _Liked._ I've never loved anyone the way I love Percy. You never truly had a chance. Go away and get a life. I'm sure there's some disgusting, Kronos-loving jerk who's perfect for you. But seriously, give it up, because I'll kill you before I'll even like you again. In any way. Just go."

Luke stared at me and I knew what I was saying was going in one ear and out the other.

"Luke," Percy began, and suddenly I had a bad feeling. "Luke, you really shouldn't be hitting on my fiancé."

Bad thing to say.

"Perseus Jackson. You. Will. Die."

Luke spun and lunged with his sword, but Percy was quicker. He jumped back, did a backward somersault, and landed in the ocean.

Luke's chance was gone.

Percy stood up, letting himself stay wet, and ran to Luke, slashing out with Riptide. Luke's sword, Backbiter, glistened eerily in the moonlight, like only a weapon could. I stared at them, unable to comprehend that this stupid rivalry could still be going after ten years, and all over me.

Soon it was flipped around and Percy was on the sand side instead of water. I knew, of course, that that would make him insecure. But he usually compensates. Then next thing I knew Luke had jumped and Percy had dodged, but not quite enough, leaving a gash in his arm stretching along his bicep, almost all the way from shoulder the elbow. Percy's winced in pain and fell back, trying to catch himself in his right arm, the injured one, and falling back, therefore filling the gash with sand. Something as small as that might seem like nothing to a Demigod, but seriously, that hurts no matter who you are. Percy looked up at Luke and through the pain, I saw hatred burning in his eyes.

Mine burned with a passionate hatred. Luke would die.

I lifted my dress to halfway up my thigh and uncovered my knife, strapped to my leg (I know, it's kind of reminiscent of movies where the heroine is simply the hot girl in the background, but I couldn't think of another way). I whipped it out and leaped at Luke in an attempt to stab him. He spun and his sword barely caught my forehead, leaving a thin gash a few inches long. I barely felt it through the pain of having seen Percy in pain, no matter how minor it was compared to other things we'd been through.

"Luke Castellan, Percy is not going anywhere. You will die."

Luke looked at me and his eyes glistened, sparkling with the power of knowing something that we didn't, the feeling of being on top of the sick game that this was.

"Ah, my dear Annabeth, that is where you are wrong."

He stepped toward me again and reached out to caress my cheek with his hand. I struck without thinking and cut his hand off, blood pouring out in front of us. He screamed in agony and caught his hand (ew) with his still attached hand.

It was one of the grossest things I'd ever seen and that is saying something.

"Luke, I've never said this and meant it, but seriously: go die in a hole." I jumped at him to strike again and he dissipated in yellow dust like most monsters. There was only one explanation: someone powerful was still on his side.

I was standing there panting and shaking in disbelief that I had cut someone's hand off. I was almost disgusted with myself, even though I knew he deserved it. But I was still shaking. Someone once said you can live with anything if you don't think about it too hard. But how can you now think about that? All that blood… and I've seen a lot of carnage, seriously. But usually when I'd killed people… well first off, most of them weren't people, which made it easier (as sick as that is). But also, I'm a good shot; I usually make it quick and less painful. But Luke… all that blood…

I was crying before I knew it and Percy was behind me, wrapping his uninjured arm around me and comforting me, swiping my hair around to one side my head and kissing my cheek, my neck, wrapping his arm around my waist, pulling me backward in against his warm body, knowing I felt safe there. Soon I stopped crying and I realized how dumb it was. It's not like I had killed him. I just cut his hand off. Whatever. He didn't need his left hand, anyway.

"Okay, I'm okay," I told him, telling him my revelation that I shouldn't feel bad. He agreed. Suddenly he winced in pain and I realized that we hadn't done anything for that arm yet.

"Come on Percy," I said, grabbing his hand (on the non-injured arm, of course) and dragging him off. We'd pick up our stuff in a few minutes, after his arm was bandaged and Chiron was alerted of Luke's return.

Chiron couldn't believe it at first, and once he thought about it… well, of course he could believe it.

"Chiron, what are we supposed to do?" Percy asked as an Apollo camper cleaned and bandaged his wound. It must have hurt even worse than it looked like it did, because he kept wincing, and he's generally rather silent about pain. I held his hand and hoped I was helping some. I looked at his face and he was mostly at peace, closing his eyes to try and not watch, but I knew he was still in pain. I turned and kissed him gently, the Apollo camper laughing a bit. I laughed at him and turned back to Chiron.

"Well, of course I would allow you to move in to Camp," he began. "But I have this feeling that wouldn't be very safe for the campers. You could go to Olympus, but that would only make Luke madder. You could go to Percy's dad's palace, but that's too obvious. Obvious-ness goes along with the other options as well, I suppose. The only thing I can think of is to go into hiding."

I looked at Percy, who's eyes were wide open now. Our eyes met and I remembered I was supposed to be communicating with him about something, but suddenly his seaweed green eyes had the control and I was swimming in memories of him and the realization that I was the lucky girl who got to marry him.

"Annabeth!" Chiron almost yelled. I snapped out of it finally and turned to face him.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. I was becoming so girly and not me. Weird.

"Percy, what do you think?" I said, turning to him, with a clear head this time.

"Well… alright. But we have to tell my mom we're disappearing. She'll be anxious because she was kind of excited in anticipation of… you know…"

"We'll go to her house on the way to… wherever. Alright Chiron," I said skeptically. I was not excited about running away. But whatever. "We'll do it." It seemed like the only way.

"I'll start finding people – or centaurs, or other creatures… – who will help you on your way. Now where would Demigods not go…"

Percy and I looked at each other and knew immediately.

"San Francisco."

**I'd better stop before this gets insanely long. It's just I finally know where I'm going with this! Haha :) Hope I'm doing ok! Hopefully I'll be back soon, too. I'm gonna see if I can go write an Interview now. Bye!**


	4. Chapters 4 and 5

**4**

I couldn't believe Annabeth and I were going to San Francisco any more than I believed that she had crudely amputated someone. But I decided to never bring that up. She was scarred, I knew.

And now we were the first to go into a sort of Half Blood Witness Protection Program. And there were a surprising amount of steps to go through to make sure a couple of half bloods could safely disappear for a long period of time.

First was facing my mom.

The elevator up was tense. I felt like hitting my head against the wall. We should be going up to tell my mom that we were getting married, that it was finally real. But no. We were going up to tell her that we were going to disappear, for the gods know how long, and take up some stupid fake identities, led by half bloods we didn't know because that was the only safe way to do it. Annabeth saw the stress in my eyes, in my expression, and reached out to grab my hand. And I broke. I turned to her and wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my face in her hair and just stayed there because it was perfect and I wasn't obliged to do anything there.

Annabeth was perfect. I was still awkward.

We finally got to my mom's floor and headed to her apartment. We both had keys and I didn't hesitate in opening the door.

"Mom! You home?" I called upon entering.

"Percy? Oh Percy! Annabeth!" she yelled, excited, running up the hall to meet us and attacking us in a hug that somehow encompassed us both. My mom's a bit petite, so how she managed that I will never know.

"Let me see the ring, Annabeth, he didn't have it yet when he told me," she said. Annabeth complied and showed her, but began to break the news I couldn't utter.

"Actually, that's kind of… that's not what we're here for…" Annabeth couldn't finish. She stepped back, pulled her hand away and wrapped one arm around my waist, resting the other on my chest.

"Mom… Luke's back."

**5 (Annabeth)**

I was glad Percy broke the news to his mom, because I couldn't do it. I cringed away. Her expression immediately changed. She looked up straight into our eyes and realized she hadn't even bothered to register the mood of this unprecedented meeting. But she saw immediately in our eyes the same expressions we always wore, the same feelings, as when we were younger and a quest was coming that we weren't excited about. Something that scared us.

For me, that was something I didn't know or understand. And I definitely did not know or understand Luke's mind. He was sick. Mentally. Absolutely delusional. He thought I still loved him.

Sick.

We were sitting at the small table in their kitchen, painted a sunny yellow, with Percy's mom and step-dad. It had been a long time since we'd gotten to come see them. I wished we would do it more often just because, as opposed to because our lives were in danger.

"So basically," Percy said, beginning to finish the story, "we have to go hide in San Fran until Luke… I don't know… dies? Or something."

You would think his mom would be crying. But no. She was so used to all this stuff with half bloods, I guessed it didn't even phase her anymore that Percy's life might be in danger.

Sally was a great mom. I couldn't wait for her to be my mother-in-law.

"Annabeth… Look, mom, I don't want to leave, but we need to go pack and head out—"Go, Percy," his mom cut in. She was so understanding. I wished my dad could have always been that way, but my step-mom got in the way. Just like Percy's first step-dad had.

"Bye mom," Percy said, standing with my hand in his and leaning over the table to kiss his mom on the cheek. He hugged Paul and I hugged them both and we left, back to our apartments.

When we got back, his apartment wasn't empty. The lights were on and we could see the silhouettes of people inside.

"Percy…" I whispered, scared. He drew Riptide from his pocket and went to calmly open the door.

"SURPRISE!!!" yelled Grover, Juniper, Tyson, Rose, and even Thalia. I laughed as Percy put Riptide's cap back on.

"You guys are awesome," I told them, still giggling, hugging Percy who's heart was still pounding from thinking it was Luke.

"Why the sword, Percy?" Grover asked.

"Luke, that's why."

The room fell silent.

"He's back?" Grover questioned, trembling.

"Sadly, yes," I answered. "And I'd like to kill him. Well, no really… chopping his hand off was enough trauma for me…"

"You chopped his hand off?!" Thalia yelled with surprise.

"Well… yeah," I answered sheepishly, laughing and staying close to Percy always.

"Wait, Luke is overshadowing everything. Let us see the ring, Annabeth!" Rose called to me.

I laughed. "Fine, fine, come look," I said holding out my hand. Rose and Juniper bounded over to look, while Grover and Tyson went to talk to Percy and Thalia came over to look at the ring a bit less anxiously than the other girls. I caught bits and pieces of the guys' conversation.

"Dude, what are you gonna do about Luke?" Grover asked.

"Luke bad," Tyson confirmed. Good old Tyson. The guy really had grown on me.

"I don't know, guys. I can't kill him… it's not his fault he turned out this way. I can't kill him. But I have to… I don't know… I have to find a way to get rid of him without killing him. Is that possible?"

"Tartarus…" Grover muttered. I took in a sharp breath. We wouldn't do that to a demigod, right? Kronos hardly counted. Kronos was safe nowhere but Tartarus.

"No way," Percy answered, and I sighed with relief. "I couldn't do that to someone," he finished. Percy, I love you.

"Then what?" Grover prodded.

"I don't know."

We'll figure it out, Percy, I know we will.

For the rest of the night we celebrated cautiously, Luke never completed seeping away from conversation, someone always a bit wary of the door. I was going to sleep in Percy's room tonight-not taking any chances, though sleeping in his room was a bit… well, my mom wouldn't have liked it if my life didn't depend on it.

After explaining everything, everyone agreed they'd fight him with us, Iris-Message whenever they could (carefully, working around Luke) and cover for our disappearance around here.

"You guys are awesome," I told them all towards the end of the night.

"I know I am," Thalia said, always the one to lighten the mood. Eventually they all had to go home and that left Percy and I, our last night in the complex for a while. He walked me up to my apartment to get some sweats to sleep in and we went back down to his room.

While getting ready for bed, I had to ask. "Percy, what are we going to do?"

"I wish I knew, Annabeth. But I can tell you one thing: if he touches you again, it's going to be hard not to kill him."

Somehow, I was okay with that.


	5. Chapters 6, 7, and 8

**6 (Percy)**

After I fell asleep, I couldn't help but subconsciously think, maybe even believe, that I was back at camp. Because I hadn't had a dream like this since camp.

I was standing in a big, black, marble palace. Like one we'd found Luke/Kronos in before, but more how I'd imagined it before actually seeing it. It was huge, a monolith with evil intentions looming above me. I approached carefully, though why I dared to approach I did not understand.

Looking back on the dream, I think the me in the dream knew who was in there, needing to be rescued. Always casting myself as the prince charming, for a damsel who could just as easily save herself. Egotistic.

But this was different.

I walked in and saw Luke, with Annabeth. It was like something out of a stupid kid's movie where the bad guy takes over and puts the girl in chains while the boy comes to the rescue. Annabeth was chained, arms bound together, legs bound together, in some unbreakable, glowing material I'd never seen. I imagined it being like the material that Hephaestus made nets out of to try and capture his wife, Aphrodite, with Ares. I got caught in one of those nets once. Interesting experience.

Annabeth sat on the arm of Luke's throne-like he was Kronos again, even though he clearly wasn't. He was too vulnerable, too weak, too stupid to be Kronos, who actually counted as a threat. Luke was no threat. He was a coward who sent others to do his dirty work.

Luke had his arm around Annabeth and she tried to wriggle away, but couldn't seem to move right. It didn't make any sense. The real Annabeth could have gotten herself out of it. Then Luke made a move I could have killed him for-he turned and kissed her. She tried to reach up her hand and slap him but the chains pulled back, like they had a mind of their own. I stared for a moment, paralyzed, so many emotions running through me that I didn't know which one I was feeling at any given point in time.

But the anger, passion, revenge, love for that girl practically being abused…

I could kill him.

I ran across the black marble floor, faster than I'd ever run in my life. Suddenly Riptide was in my hand, glinting in the sun, as the roof of the strange temple had disappeared. I looked up and saw the sky was cloudy. As I made a swipe for Luke, he finally heard me, turned around and made a strange sort of battle cry that could curdle blood. Annabeth was still as a statue, until she wiped her mouth with her hand-why could her hand move now?-and just watched as we fought, but not really watching. Her stare was blank.

I'd been staring at Annabeth, and suddenly Luke was in my face, growling, a knife in his hand...

And I woke up, sweating, panting, looking around to make sure I was in my apartment, when I remembered Annabeth was there. She was sitting up, holding my hand. Despite sweats, a t-shirt, and bed head to an extreme, Annabeth was beautiful. She was exactly the person I needed to see, normal and moving and perfect, after that dream. I lifted one hand to her cheek, cupped her face in my palm, pulled her toward me and kissed her, not long, but enough to bring me back down to earth and make my head spin at the same time. I felt better immediately. Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth.

Annabeth. Thank the gods.

**7 (Annabeth)**

I hated it when Percy had these nightmares. He didn't even know how many he'd had when we were younger. But I remember walking around in the middle of the night-yes, definitely against camp rules, but I had a cap of invisibility-and hearing him yelling softly in his sleep if I walked by his cabin. Once in a while I would go in and wake him up, just to make it end. Invisible, he never knew I'd been the one to save him from those dreams. I was okay with leaving it that way. I just wished those dreams would go away. They had, once we'd gotten out of camp. And now they must have been coming back.

I could've cried.

Percy kissed me and I knew he needed something, anything, to remember that he was real and not some figment of his own imagination. I happily obliged. When he pulled away I held my hand out and looked at the ring on my finger. Beautiful, perfectly representing both of us in unity. He couldn't have done better.

"Percy, we should pack. We've got to get driving around 1:00. Chiron said we need to take the most roundabout way possible to throw off any monsters, so I think our first step should be to go way south, and we can zig-zag across the country. How's Atlanta, Georgia sound? It's about a 14 hour drive. Chiron gave us a boatload of money, since he doesn't use American money much now that he's 'retired' from teaching, so we can go buy a car. Seriously, lots of money."

I already knew what he'd say. "Why don't we just ask the rental company if we can buy the Prius we used last night? It's already here, and we don't have time to go car shopping. If we offer above retail asking price, they'll go for it, right?"

"I hope so," I said, already planning out packing lists, stops we'd need to make, gas money, hotels, other expenses…

"Chiron says we need to take as a little as possible and buy a lot of clothes on the road," I continued, though Percy was only about half listening, throwing clothes and toiletries into a suitcase. We'd decided one suitcase each. I was basically just reiterating things we'd already planned. I kind of do that when I'm stressed-you know, take charge of everything, feel the need to act like a know it all… I love Percy for dealing with that.

He zipped up the suitcase, stood up straight and looked at me, sitting on the bed. I looked like crap. I was sitting on a bed with covers thrown everywhere. I hadn't showered yet. I wore an old t-shirt covered in paint from a college my mom used to work at, and black basketball shorts because the sweats I'd brought originally were way to warm. My hair was probably going in five different directions, some of it sticking to my forehead. I felt gross. But he looked at me like I was the most beautiful thing in the world. I shivered and he realized we needed jackets, handing me a jacket of his. I put it on happily, and when he turned around I pulled the sleeves over my hands and brought it up to my face to smell it. It smelled like him, and that was amazing.

I felt sixteen again, for a minute there.

Percy sat on the bed next to me, put his arm around my waist, and I put my head on his shoulder. Neither of us wanted to leave, I knew that, but we had to sometime.

"Come on," I told him, standing and grabbing his hand. "I've got to grab some clothes too."

I planned on stealing his jackets a lot though.

We walked to the fire escape and climbed that to my apartment instead, leaving his suitcase in his apartment. We laughed as people walked by and stared at the two college-aged kids climbing the fire escape. They probably all thought we were drunk. Stupid college stereotypes.

But we collapsed into my apartment laughing. My apartment was significantly bigger than Percy's ground floor apartment. You could see for miles, as most of the buildings in this area were at least slightly shorter and we were on a corner anyway. I stood on my balcony and looked out at the sunrise. What time had we woken up? I turned to a clock. 6:30.

Ouch.

Percy sat on my couch and watched TV, laughing when he turned it on and National Geographic was the last thing I'd watched.

My apartment was very professional. I had diagrams all over the place. My dining room table was covered in charts, diagrams, sketches for buildings and a million other architecture related things. There was a small section on the glass table where I could eat.

Everything was white and silver and contemporary and clean. There was a big silver clock that looked like an owl hung above the TV. I laughed at how Percy could be so at home in my apartment, so different from his. He looked out of place, and yet it was normal to me.

I walked up a short hall to my bedroom, the part of the apartment with the most color. My comforter was lavender-I know, weird. The bed was light wood with owls carved in the posts. A small side table with a reading lamp and alarm clock was placed on one side of the bed, and the rest of the walls were covered in bookshelves, except the door to my huge closet and the door to my bathroom. An impressionistic painting of one artist's interpretation of Olympus hung above my bed. My room was my favorite part of the apartment. I reached under my bed and pulled out a worn blue suitcase, hauling it to the closet. My closet was huge, a walk in closet. I put the suitcase in the middle and began grabbing clothes. I grabbed only things I needed and things I didn't want to lose if Luke got to our apartments. I mostly got jeans and t-shirts-things I needed-but I also grabbed the dress I'd worn the day Percy proposed, and a couple of cuter shirts. I threw it all into the suitcase and went to the bathroom. I could hear Percy in my living room, laughing at whatever TV show he'd finally found on.

"Percy! I'm gonna take a quick shower!" I yelled through the house.

"Good idea! I call the shower when you're done!" he called back, as if someone else could call dibs.

"Oh, and I'll be in your room, so don't walk out without getting dressed. I don't trust Luke to not come in while you're occupied."

"Fine," I yelled to him, hearing him walking up the hall, the TV clicked off, and soon enough he was sitting on my bed. I showered, he showered, and we were walking around making sure we had everything we needed. I grabbed a backpack for things we needed to keep with us: the money, some snacks for the road, my laptop (all my architectural designs were on there too, so I knew I couldn't lose them if the paper copies were burnt or otherwise destroyed), and some memorabilia from camp that Percy and I never left home without (his minotaur horn, my cap of invisibility, etc.). We were finally ready and we went downstairs the normal way, on the rickety old elevator. He grabbed his suitcase, locked his apartment, and we looked around the place one last time.

"I'm gonna miss it," I whispered, putting one arm around his waist and a hand on his stomach, my head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Me too, Annabeth. But we have to do this. I'll do anything to keep you away from him-"and I'll do anything to stay away from him. Don't forget I can take care of myself.

**8 (Percy)**

"I know," I told her. She was so cute. I knew, after that dream more than ever, that in reality she could take care of herself. I pulled my suitcase in one hand, held Annabeth's hand in the other, and kept the backpack on my back. She pulled her own suitcase-refusing to let me carry it, independent as ever-and I looked at her. Her hair was wet and she wore simple jeans and an old camp t-shirt, and my jacket. I loved it when she wore my jackets. It was strangely cute. The jacket practically ate her alive, she seemed so small in my clothes.

The Prius was still parked on the curb. We loaded up and got ready to bargain with the dealership, considering just leaving the money on the counter and running, pulling the license plates off and telling any observant cops that the plates were new and must have fallen off. But thankfully the rental company just went with the wad of cash and let us go.

And we were on our way to Atlanta, Georgia.


	6. Chapters 9, 10, and 11

**Hey people! I have a question. Do I actually sound like Annabeth? I want to know if I'm doing a good job being her. I mean when you think about it, we don't get to see other characters' emotions very much in the real books, so I feel like I just put everything into her that I imagined, and going back and reading chapter seven I feel like I'm putting too much of me in. Because that was all me. I don't think you guys realize how much you probably know about me.**

**Speaking of which, if anyone cares about all the stuff with issues with my Percy's mom, if any devoted readers have been following that… she tagged along when some of us hung out today and we talked a LOT and I feel so much better about everything :) I know none of you care but… you guys are like the people I talk to when I just want to get something out, even though I don't think I know any of you personally… except Iggylover2.0 and Headintheclouds haha. (Speaking of which, Iggylover, if ur reading this, we need to hang out haha:) )**

**Okay, personal junk over, take it away Annabeth! **

**9(Annabeth)**

The driving was surprisingly fun. I'd always liked travelling, and I knew Percy did too. Maybe not the way I did, having been cooped up in Camp Half-Blood for half of my childhood and feeling the need to get out (constantly), but he still liked seeing new places.

Of course, it was because we were running away from a psychotic guy who was crazy in love with me, but… it could have been worse. Sad, huh? Yeah, I know.

We spent the entire drive talking, and I realized I'd forgotten what it was like to just open up to him and have an intense conversation about stuff. We'd been so wrapped up in wedding plans (which I could list for pages) and plans for running away that we hadn't gotten to just _talk_ in a long time. But a drive that long is perfect for catching up on your little emotional demons.

We talked about everything. We even dug up some ancient history about how my step-mom hating me had affected me, a bunch of stuff about my family and his that we might not have known, pieces of the past that we'd buried for good reasons. But it kind of felt good just knowing _everything_ about each other. Of course I'd already thought I knew everything about him, but I'd discovered that every time you think you know everything about someone, you find out something new from some weird little tangent the conversation went off on.

I love Percy. So much.

We just drove for hours, listening to our favorite music-Relient K, Owl City, secret obsessions like the Black Eyed Peas and some old stuff from the 70s. We talked about everything from my step-mom to what kind of chips we liked best. We sang horribly. We reminisced about camp memories. I discovered that Percy had loved one series as a teenager-the Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron. I didn't quite understand it, but I decided that it would go on my reading list, no matter what the reading level was.

Have you ever just wanted to know _everything _about someone? I had had this feeling before, but it was rekindled: suddenly I wanted to know everything about Percy Jackson.

**10 (Percy)**

Talking to Annabeth is like… talking to a better half of myself. I love it. I think it could cure anything. I think if I went through some incredibly traumatizing experience and people declared me clinically insane, Annabeth could fix it in a snap.

I love Annabeth. So, so, _so_ much. Stupid, 14-year-old-first-girlfriend, head over heels love her. Crazy. Completely crazy.

I looked out the window in a small pocket of silence before "Here (In Your Arms) by Hellogoodbye came on. I turned around and looked at Annabeth and she was looking out the window, too, but soon she felt my gaze and turned around and listened to the music. She smiled, and I reached across the car the grab her hand. She brought it to her lips and kissed it gently, then set my hand down in her lap again and kind of played with my fingers. She was still wearing my jacket, though her hair had dried. Adorable. Completely adorable.

The sun was setting and our little Prius was as tired as we were. We'd driven through the whole night, taking turns, falling asleep off and on, a sadly dwindling stash of Pepsi and our favorite music keeping us awake.

How long had we been driving? Long. We were just getting into Atlanta. A fourteen hour drive, done in one very long day and night. Oh joy. How often were we going to do this? Probably often.

_Get used to it_, I told myself. It was like when we were younger-on the run, again.

We checked in to a hotel in Atlanta. It was incredibly fun, because Chiron had given us, seriously, a LOT of money. A credit card that might as well have had an infinity sign printed on it advertising the wealth.

We checked in to a nice room, under the names Jason and Abigail Smith (doesn't it just sound like one of those sample names they put on phones in stores?). When "Abigail" left to go to the bathroom, the receptionist shamelessly tried to flirt with me. Some people are just obnoxious. When Annabeth got back we she gave the receptionist an incredible glare, until we proceeded to grab all our bags and walk to the elevator. She then pressed the button to hold the door open for a minute and pushed me against the back wall of the elevator and kissed me, insanely passionately, getting back at that jerk. When the door closed, she didn't stop.

I love Annabeth and her un-Annabeth moments. She's surprising, and I think I get all the best surprises.

**11 (Annabeth)**

Having dealt with our first two obstacles (sleep deprivation and blondes flirting with Percy), we showered, changed into basketball shorts and old camp t-shirts (well, I changed into a different camp t-shirt), and fell on the bed in exhaustion. I woke up facing light streaming through the white drapes, the French doors to our balcony open, and Percy sitting on the bed behind me watching the TV. I asked if I could sleep on the window side so that I could wake up to this-sunlight and Percy. I stretched and yawned and he laid down behind me and whispered "Good morning" into my ear. I giggled and sat up, rubbing my eyes.

And that's when everything went horribly wrong for the first time in our insane adventure.


	7. Chapters 12 and 13

**12 (Percy)**

I finally figure out something sweet to do for Annabeth when she wakes up, and a monster comes barging in? Come on. Jerks.

My arms were wrapped around Annabeth's waist when a giant… something burst through the door and most of the wall behind us. How it could have fit in the hallway in the first place, I will never know. But being the demigods we are, we jumped up, whipped out weapons (yeah…we kind of keep them with us at all times) and got ready to fight.

"Okay, Annabeth, what in Hades is that thing?" I yelled, having jumped on the dresser and slashing at its legs.

"It's Alkyoneus, the biggest and oldest of the Thrakian Gigantes!" she called back, stabbing the monster in the foot with her knife, dodging and running and slashing and jabbing under the protection of her cap of invisibility.

"How do we kill it?" I was screaming to her. I was pleased to find that no one seemed to be in the room above us, which the giant had smashed with his broad shoulders and bulbous head in order to make enough room for himself. Why didn't he just crash through the floor? But I didn't want him to-people were under us. Probably calling the hotel desk about all the noise. I jumped up and grabbed a piece of falling ceiling, swinging myself up onto the floor of the room above us just before the piece I'd grabbed fell to the ground. The giant took a step back and I heard Annabeth yelp.

"Hey, you big bully!" I yelled at it. It dawned on me how young I sounded. That was a pretty lame insult. But I'd resolved not to cuss, so I kept it that way. Well, unless I'm cussing in ancient Greek. If no one can tell you're cussing, it doesn't count…

"We fight it off, like any other monster! There were one hundred of them-I don't know his specific weakness!" Well, that's great Annabeth. That's just great.

"Alright," I muttered to myself. I then decided to summon up anything I had in me: I roared a battle cry that sounded kind of like something dying, used the adrenaline to charge the beast, jumped on its head and stabbed at its skull.

My sword cut through the skin, but bounced right back off the bone. Okay, stupid idea: big giant, thick skull.

I was hanging on by the thin wisps of hair on his gigantic head, pieces of hair as long as I was tall. I swung down and hooked my legs around his neck, hanging on for dear life, wrapping my hands in the hair. I finally got a good look at the thing, despite my spinning and shaking. He was disgusting, that was for sure. Tough skin, covered with smudges of dirt and soot, wearing a big white loin cloth type thing and a Harley Davidson t-shirt. Where he got one in his size, I will never know.

Then I had an idea. Ten years of hanging out with Annabeth had to pay off sometime, right?

"Annabeth! What if I stab his carotid artery?" I screamed over the smashing of ceiling/floor/whatever it was at this point.

"If he has one… go for it!" Her cap fell off and I saw she was clinging to the thing's ankle.

I grabbed the collar of his Harley t-shirt and swung myself around, keeping my legs locked around his neck, and slashed around where I thought his carotid artery would be if his neck weren't all fat. Apparently I guessed right, because he wailed in pain and began thrashing around as he bled soon started slowly turning to dust in a ripple effect. Sadly he didn't dissipate quickly enough: he whipped his head around and slammed the back of my head into the ceiling/floor/thing.

My only thought was _ow_ before I fell to the ground like a rock and everything went black.

**13 (Annabeth)**

Percy falling twenty feet, unconscious before he hit the ground, bleeding from his head, a monster dissipating slowly and leaving blood and shreds of Harley Davidson t-shirt everywhere… in short, an image I could deal with never remembering.

But I will _always_ remember it. _Always._


	8. Chapter 14

**14 (Annabeth)**

I couldn't do anything else with a wound like that: we were in a hospital. So much for keeping a low profile, huh? And of course, I got to come up with the cover story.

So I gave up on a cover story pretty quickly, and put my acting skills to the test: I pretended to be in shock.

I sat in the ambulance and stared blankly at Percy. "He's just… so much blood… I don't know if…" I stuttered and began to cry and stared blankly and tried to hyperventilate without injuring myself and everything else I could think of until they finally stopped asking me questions and turned away. Abigail… wait what was my last name? Smith.

Abigail Smith had a weak stomach. Annabeth Chase learned how to make herself throw up. Productive day. Well, by the time we got out of that hospital, productive night.

We finally figured out that the giant had attacked around 3:00 pm-I don't think I've ever slept at such strange times-and we got out of the hospital around 8:00 pm. Percy finally woke up at 6:00 and they felt the need to run a bunch of tests to make sure he didn't have a concussion, which I could have told them around 4:00.

As soon as we knew he was fine, he faked amnesia for only the accident. As soon as they tested him enough to make sure that was all that he'd forgotten, I asked that they leave the room so I could talk to him.

Then we ran.

They'd brought our things from the hotel, even found our Prius, and parked it in the hospital parking garage. We ran like crazy, jumped in the Prius, and drove away, no idea where we were going. Finally I decided what we would do.

"Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm hungry."


	9. Chapters 15 and 16

**15 (Percy)**

Annabeth is like a sponge for facts: she just absorbs _all of them_. So, naturally, she knew that Hayley Williams and the rest of Paramore were from Franklin, Tennessee and decided that since we'd been listening to _Brand New Eyes_ all day, we were going to Franklin. I also discovered she had an obsession with music beyond what I knew-she'd actually brought a lot of her CDs in her bag of essentials. Considering the guidelines we were on, that was borderline "breaking the rules." Go Annabeth.

This drive was only around four hours, and that felt like nothing, especially since Annabeth conveniently got hungry about half an hour into the drive. I'd heard her stomach growling a few miles before she said anything, but I think she'd wanted to get farther away from the hospital and the attention. And I think she was right, but she is allowed to put herself first once in a while.

But I don't think that's the way she works. Maybe it's not the way I work, either. Go figure.

We went through a Subway drive thru, parked and took turns going to the bathroom while one of us stayed in the car. Leaving her in the car alone scared the crap out of me, but she insisted…

"I can take care of myself, Percy. We're not at camp anymore-and even if we were, I would beat the crap out of anyone who tried to get near me. Percy, I used to be the one looking out for you. You just got out of the hospital with a near concussion. It's my turn to take over for a little while."

After that, she tore into her sandwich like the quarterback of a high school football team. God, I love her.

After going to Subway, we drove the whole way nonstop. I've never met another girl who could go four hours without a bathroom, but she'd always been able to do it-no matter what time of the month.

After a few more uneventful hours of driving, we made it to Franklin and found a nice hotel and settled in for the night, and actually had some normal conversations that didn't involve our lives being threatened in any way. No one jumped out at us, no one tried to kill us, and we got to talk. That was the thing I loved about going into hiding: it was just us and we could talk as much as we wanted.

We fell asleep that night in safety. How often do I get to say that?

**16 (Annabeth)**

I fell asleep next to Percy and woke up to the sun, again. It was like in the middle of everything, Percy was the only one who mattered and we were having an amazing time running for our lives. I woke up and looked at the sun, didn't register the fact that Percy wasn't behind me in the bed, and walked to the balcony. I threw open the curtains and French doors and looked out at Franklin, Tennessee.

I'd liked Paramore since their first CD, _All We Know Is Falling_, had come out. They'd helped me to finally get over my world being turned upside down at the age of seven. I had all three albums and knew every word to every song, could list the tracks in order for each album, and could practically tell you down to the second how long each song was. Not even kidding. Paramore was like… my security blanket. I'd finally grown out of that, but I still loved them. I just didn't need them like a medication anymore. Nobody knew that except Percy, because I'd told him the night before. I knew he wouldn't tell anyone.

Percy. Where was Percy?

I whipped around faster than you would believe possible, considering it was morning. I'm not much of a morning person unless my life is in danger, so I guess you probably didn't really know that.

Anyway, Percy was gone. Where had my fiancé disappeared to?

Suddenly the door was thrown open and it was like all Hades was loose in our hotel room.


	10. Chapter 17

**17 (Percy)**

Leaving Annabeth a note would probably have been smart, but how do you put "Luke came in the middle of the night and tried to kill me I got rid of him but now I'm packing all our stuff and putting it in the car and once I'm ready I'm going to come grab you in your sleep and carry you away like a very light sack of potatoes so be ready in your sleep" into a note? You just don't.

Then I heard it. It was like hearing gun shots, only it was yells and crashes and slightly more Greek weapons. We're really not into guns. Fire, Hades yeah, but guns… nah. Too American.

I punched the stop button on the elevator and ran to the stairs, hoping there would be some door to a janitors closet or something that would have some access to something with control over pipes. There was a closet two floors up from me with access to a room of water heaters for the floors around it.

Perfect. Water. Time to blast out part of the building.

In seconds I was up through the floor-avoiding people, thank you very much, I just kind of have a sixth sense for that which hasn't failed me yet-and in our hotel room.

We have no destroyed two hotel rooms. Great.

And I came in on Luke attacking Annabeth, and his goons surrounding her. That's great, just great.

However my little diversion with the pipelines caused most of his goons, who were all monsters with slightly lesser IQs (just the way Luke likes it-he gets the be the superior one so that no one under him would even think of taking over), decided to watch me and the water, so most of them were gone in a few seconds of whacking at things with Riptide. That left Luke and one of his previous five goons. Luke screamed in Greek for his little sidekick-well, not so little, I think he was a Laistrygonian giant-to take Annabeth while he came at me. Thanks, Luke, you suck.

But hey, I got another chance to kill him. Well, not kill him, but incapacitate him so that we could keep running. How did he keep tracking us?

I wasn't about to take the time to find out.

I jumped at him, Riptide in hand, anger boiling and bubbling, feeling like a soldier running in to kill the leader of the opposing army-sad that he had to kill someone, not wanting to be in the war, but loving the feeling of being the one to end the enemy.

_Another one bites the dust,_ I began to hum. Can you say cocky? Oh well. I guess that's the curse of fighting so long.

I lunged to cut Luke's head off and he expertly dodged. He jumped to stab under my ribcage but missed completely, and I came back around to graze his arm with my sword. Blood seeped from the cut in a crimson stream that was way to gratifying. I told myself that he had once been my friend, that I should never be happy to see another half blood bleeding, that he wasn't Kronos anymore, but I couldn't get the image of him trying to kiss Annabeth out of my head. It wouldn't go away. Something was wrong with my head, and now was not the time to deal with it. I just needed Luke out of the picture long enough to grab Annabeth and run.

Luke looked at the blood running down his arm and glared daggers at me. If looks could kill, I'd have somehow been found dead with a couple hundred bullets straight through my heart. Great. The last thing I needed was him that angry.

Maybe he had been already.

I jumped at him and pushed him out of the way, and his head crashed into the dresser. No blood, so hopefully that wouldn't be fatal… very painful, though. And he was out cold. It was disgusting to look at. He looked dead. I turned around to check on Annabeth and she was sitting on the bed watching.

"You could have helped," I joked.

"Well, I wanted you to deal with it yourself. You seemed to be thinking through everything too much. Something's bothering you. I was debating jumping in and helping, but I figured this was not a time to talk, so I let your instincts take over because they're different than mine. I can't stay in the moment-I have to think about the future. You're better at what's good for the moment. So I let you take the moment."

"Okay, somehow that made sense. Do you think-"Percy, we have to get out of here," she cut in. But I had to check. I looked around for a mirror or something and found one on the dresser.

I took the mirror, walked to Luke slumped down in front of the other end of the dresser, and held the mirror up near his face. The glass fogged up.

"Okay, he's alive. We can go now."

Annabeth just stared at me.

"I don't want to kill anyone," I told her.

"Thank you, Percy. You've solved your little psychological problem. You were afraid of becoming a killer, but you can control it. If you can say that, and even stay long enough to make sure he's alive, you won't kill him. Not even on accident. You will prevent it."

She began to walk closer, bringing her hand up to my face and cupping it in the palm of her hand.

"You're not a killer, Percy, and you will not become a killer," she said, looking straight into my eyes. "You don't have it in you," she laughed, and got on her tip toes to kiss me. I pulled her up around her waist so she could reach better, then picked her up the rest of the way and ran, carrying her out of the room, through the hole I'd blown in the wall, and running to our car.

"So, where to next?" I asked her like we were on a road trip. I decided we were. That was all this was. A road trip.

"Texas. Somewhere in Texas," she replied for no reason I could think of.

"Alright. Texas it is."


	11. Chapters 18, 19 and 20

**18 (Annabeth)**

Everything's bigger in Texas, right?

Right. Including the architecture. But then again, I can find architecture just about anywhere.

I've visited the Alamo a thousand times, so I decided to do something different. Percy and I were headed for San Antonio, Texas, so that I could see the San Antonio Public Library. However the drive was fourteen hours and Percy needed more sleep than he'd gotten, so, at 6:00 AM, I began driving us to San Antonio. He fell asleep in the back seat and promised that he'd start driving whenever he woke up, and told me to wake him up in no more than 4 hours and we would each take 4 hour shifts, him taking the longest shift at the end. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he was already asleep. I resolved to wake him up in five hours… maybe five and a half.

It was raining and I was listening to a playlist of slightly quieter alternative songs on my iPod. Currently, it was "Satellite Heart" by Anya Marina-one of my favorite songs to listen to in the rain. I don't know why.

I felt better about sneaking my iPod and all my music when I found a bag of seashells in Percy's bag, and a box of random little things that I knew were good memories for him. I had something like that too. My box had things like my silver owl earrings (when I wasn't wearing them), my old iPod (even though it was broken. It was the first thing my step mom gave me after she realized I wasn't a horrible person sent from Hades.), a piece of chalk that Thalia, Luke and I had used to make hopscotch on our insane journey to Camp Half-Blood… it was a random box. Percy's was, too. But I could tell you the memories behind most of his box, if you asked.

I looked out the windows at the rain coming down as the song changed to "When I Go Down" by Relient K. Another good song.

I felt like any minute a car was going to slam into us. I could see it happening. I could see the car crashing into us, the black of being knocked out, the white of waking up in a hospital bed. I could smell the exhaust and sudden exposure to the rain and outside air, the nothingness, and the antiseptic-y smell. Yeah, I've been in car crashes.

I glanced up at the mirror to see Percy, totally out in the back seat, drooling in his sleep. Same old Seaweed Brain.

I looked at the clock. It was 11. I was getting hungry, and it was Percy's turn to drive soon. I'd just have to hope he didn't think too much about the time, and actually woke me up when he was supposed to. I started keeping watch for somewhere good to eat. As the song changed to "Hey There, Delilah" I spotted a KFC, pulled over, and woke Percy up.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain. Rise and shine," I said, giggling and wiping the drool off his face as he sat up slowly and yawned.

"Good morning… noon… whatever time," he said with a smile and a stretch, looking up at me and around at the fact that it was raining but finally daytime. I suddenly realized I was tired and super hungry and needed to go to the bathroom.

And into KFC we went.

**19 (Percy)**

The rest of the drive was okay. Annabeth slept in the back and looked adorable. We took turns driving one more time. Finally, we made it to San Antonio and slept a few more hours and ate a lot more. We woke up the next morning and it was sunny. I suddenly realized I had no idea what day it was.

"June something, I think," was Annabeth's reply. We didn't really feel like checking either.

The next morning we woke up and headed out to the San Antonio Public Library. I saw a Cyclops on the street who stopped to high five me, tell me he was a big fan, and then left without another word. We shrugged and laughed at the fact that I was a celebrity among mythical creatures. But we did just get all the Cyclops' of San Antonio as bodyguards, secretly, so I decided it was pretty cool.

Annabeth was like a kid in a candy store every time we went somewhere that was new to her. She could stare at architecture and tell me a thousand things about it for hours. We weren't staying four hours, of course, but she was having fun. I now know that the San Antonio Public Library was built by Ricardo Legorreta. Woohoo. But I love her, so it was still fun.

**20 (Annabeth)**

I was on a computer on the second floor of the library when it happened.

I was searching random books, with no particular goal in sight. Another girl about my age started talking to me. She was totally human, so I wasn't worried, and I let her talk. She seemed to need someone to just listen. Maybe I didn't listen the whole time, but I tried. I found out a lot about her. She was pretty-straight brunette hair and striking blue eyes. She wore jeans and a sweatshirt from a high school I hadn't heard of. I finally found out her name was Cassidy. She mostly just rambled about things she must have thought I'd be interested in. I guess I looked like someone who was antisocial and needed to be talked to. But she was funny, and I did actually talk some. She was definitely a good distraction from the less fun parts of our little road trip, and the books themselves were boring me, but I wanted to give Percy a break from the architecture.

Something she said caught me off guard, and then things started going wrong.

She started talking about Greek mythology. She said that she had a friend who was really interested in it, a couple friends actually, and that she knew a bit about it because of them. She asked if I was interested and I knew I couldn't lie, because if she said something wrong I would start correcting her. So I said yes, I knew a lot about it. And then I saw a Cyclops about 30 feet behind her trying to get my attention and warn me of something.

Suddenly Cassidy was standing completely still and looking up at something behind me.

"Oh, styx." And then I realized, as I was spinning around and bringing out my knife to attack the…whatever it was…that if she was seeing this, she could see through the mist. Cassidy was not normal: she was almost one of us. But she was still human. She didn't know. So I told her to run to the elevator and, in shock, she listened to me and left.

And I faced the giant behind me.

"Percy! Time to go!" I screamed through the library.


	12. Chapter 21

**AN: **.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Public_Library Okay so I improvised a little bit because the front door isn't on this wall, but I had to do it, I love the setting! So use your imagination:)

**21 (Percy)**

Menoitios: the Titan of "violent anger, rash action, and human mortality" according to , my favorite reference for mythology. He couldn't have picked a better place to attack us: I was on a computer and searched who he was in seconds while Annabeth stabbed at him. However once I found out I wasn't too happy about leaving my girlfriend to kill him.

Now to figure out how epic this fight was, you have got to look up a picture of this library. I'm not gonna lie, it's awesome.

Annabeth was mostly holding her own, but she was not defeating this guy, and he was huge. The Cyclops were trying but he just shrugged them off-they were pretty small of Cyclops since they were blending in as humans. So our secret bodyguards were not a lot of help.

I pulled Riptide out of my pocket, took the cap off and charged. "AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I had one of those smart moments where I screamed something in Greek and it was along the lines of "A glass of water smells better than you!" and I heard Annabeth laugh at my stupidity over the clanging of swords and the grumbles of Menoitios, the most unattractive titan and/or god I had ever seen. Not kidding.

"This guy is obnoxious!" I yelled to Annabeth. She laughed again, but the beast spoke.

"Perseus Jackson, you will die. You and your little girlfriend. You stand no chance with the might of the remaining titans against you. Luke is my master, and I live to do what he wants, and what he wants is to have you captured!" he snarled. Creeper.

"And why would he not just have us killed?" Annabeth said to the monster.

"Because that is an honor saved for the Master!" Menoitios screamed, lunging to attack Annabeth just as I realized he was wearing gaudy Hawaiian flower print swim trunks.

"Annabeth! Up and up!" I shouted. We'd gone over a few battle plans in the car, and named them after songs because we knew we'd remember those. Up and Up by Relient K. In this case, jump up on the desk, jump on the monsters head, and stab them in the small brain he or she may have.

However Menoitios bucked us off like a bull. So I decided we'd do what came naturally after stabbing things.

Running like crazy.

I ran down the stairs, deciding that maybe he could break into the elevator, and outside, where a couple of harpies were waiting and surrounded us, trapping Annabeth and I on one of the giant red ball decorations on the Eastern side of the building. They were big red spheres taller than I was, but shorter than the titan, so we were now at his height as he came in on the front and two harpies came up calmly behind us. They might was well have left; Annabeth and I spun around and slashed them in half at exactly the same moment, leaving only the titan of destruction through ugly shorts.

So we jumped to the next ball, and he calmly followed.

"You will die, Percy Jackson-"Yeah, yeah," I cut in. "Do you have any idea how many times I've heard that?" I yelled, and I jumped on his head again, holding on better this time, just distracting him.

"Annabeth, do something!" This was definitely not a plan. But it was quite effective. I stayed on his head while he tried to buck me off and Annabeth jumped from ball to ball as he stumbled down the stairs in a mad spaz attack. I figured all the people watching should really get cameras out, but they were all running. What, were we attacking Hitler or something?

"Percy, we have got to get out of here!" Annabeth screamed, stabbing at the titan of swim trunks and missing horribly. "People are staring!"

"No, really?" I said, laughing, and letting go with one hand so I could try to stab.

Then Annabeth and I stabbed at exactly the same time and it had a strange effect. I stabbed his head, and she stabbed his heart, straight through. We've got good aim.

Instead of dissipating into a cloud of dust, he burst into a golden flash of light before disappearing, leaving me to fall to the cement stairs rather painfully.

"Ow," I said dully as Annabeth helped me up, grabbed my hand, and ran. We bolted to the car.

What happened to that monster?

We jumped into the car and just sat for a minute, breathing hard, when I realized and thought out loud.

"He didn't die."


	13. Very Important News!

Alright guys, so I told you that I got a WordPress account and had a blog on there. Well guess what? WordPress really annoys me. So I am switching to Blogspot, because I already know how to use it very well.

So, ignore the WordPress update, and check this out:

.com

Ta-da! This one is working much better! :)


	14. Chapters 22 and 23

**AN: Well I feel a lot better now about you guys not going on my blog yet-the link doesn't show up! Lol. Okay, it's maxride45 . blogspot . com without the spaces :P Haha. Hopefully that one will work! :P Anyway, I've missed writing for this even though it's only been like a few days, so here you go!**

**Btw, how should we celebrate the one year anniversary of ****LLPA****? I first published on FanFic on September 6****th****, 2009. It's coming up! Oh, and please look at my profile for a bunch of info that you might want to know. Haha.**

**Anyway, take it away Percy and Annabeth!**

**22 (Annabeth)**

"But why?" I said for about the thousandth time, my feet up on the dash, looking out at the sunny Texas landscape and thankful for the Prius' air conditioning.It was actually really pretty. It wasn't all brown like I thought it would be. I had a sudden appreciation for deserts. We drove through Midland, Texas and found a giant sculpture of a book. The sculpture was called "Texas Landscape", by Eric McGehearty. I had no idea if it was an actual book or not. But it was pretty cool. I mean, I appreciate books.

"Annabeth, honey, for the thousandth time, _I have no idea_." How Percy can stand me I will never know.

"Maybe something about the way we killed it…"

"Well my mom didn't die when the minotaur squished her, but that was just because Hades wanted to bargain with me. Could someone-"Could someone want to bargain with Luke?" I cut in. Oops. "Sorry, you were talking." _I need to take a chill pill_, I thought, putting my head on my knees, feet still propped up on the dashboard.

"It's fine," Percy said, letting go of the wheel with his right hand and reaching for my left. I took it gladly and exhaled, not even having noticed I was holding my breath. Only Percy can make anxiety go away that I don't even know I have. He looked at me and I looked straight ahead. Okay, okay, fine, you can fix me when I don't know I'm broken. Relish in the moment. Now watch where you're driving! He looked back to the road. Good mind reading.

"We'll figure it out," he assured me.

"I know we will. We always do." And then I think I fell asleep, despite the fact that I felt the need to take a thousand pictures of Texas.

**23**

While Annabeth slept-dang, she is cute when she sleeps-I drove and looked at Texas and searched every crevice of my mind for an answer that she would find plausible. Ha. Right.

At least Texas was kind of pretty in its own way.

Then I saw it.

"AHHH!"

I swerved to the side of the thankfully empty highway, the sky getting dark as rain started to fall. I'd lost track of what time it was supposed to be and had no time to check. Annabeth jerked awake in the seat next to me as the car lurched to a stop.

Luke.


	15. Chapters 24 and 25

**24 (Percy)**

Luke, standing in the middle of the road menacingly looking down on us, Backbiter in his hand and the darkness and rain and Texas thunderstorm behind him. I had no idea what time it was. I wasn't sure exactly where we were. I may have fallen asleep at the wheel a couple times, judging by the amount of darkness, but the thunderstorm made it impossible to tell. There were no cars on the road. How was that even possible?

And Luke.

"Percy, what's going on?" Annabeth said, looking around at our car barely scratched but in a ditch.

"Luke."

Annabeth grabbed my hand and looked around trying to find him, determined as ever. I couldn't see him, either. I looked back exactly where he had been and saw nothing.

_THUD!_

Something-or, obviously, someone-landed on top of our car and before we could so much as think there was a sword right between us, glowing, pierced straight through the top of our car. We let go of each other's hands, whipped out weapons and leaped out either side of the car, ready to fight.

I looked up and there he was, staring straight at me, sword still in the Prius, crouched on top with his scar practically glowing and celestial bronze armor glistening in the rain.

"Percy. I am so sick of having to make this dramatic every time. Can't I just kill you now?"

Well, that did it. Annabeth yelled and jumped on his back, stabbing her knife carefully in the gap between his helmet and breastplate to stab the shoulder and not the neck, severely injuring but not killing him. Luke screamed in pain and tried to stab at her, catching her in the leg as she jumped back. It bled way more than it should have-he'd cut far, far too deep for comfort. She landed on the wet grass with a thud, possibly hitting her head, and very, very pale. She didn't pass out, but she looked like it wouldn't have been a bad idea. Luke was still screaming in agony. And she was losing way too much blood.

"Percy Jackson…" he began through screams, breathing very heavily. "I… will… end… you."

**25**

When people threaten to kill my boyfriend, I think less. Which is surprising for me.

However, people-and gods, and monsters, and titans, and, and, and…-threaten to kill my boyfriend a lot, so perhaps I should kick this habit.

I could still see Luke. I was not completely out of this fight. I had to stop doing that to Percy, had to stop acting without thinking and getting myself hurt, had to, had to…

Everything was getting fuzzier, but I was not going down without a fight. That was a stab and a slash. Not a full fight.

"Luke…" I tried to say, but it came out raspy and quiet. I didn't look down at my leg-I could feel the blood flowing out.

"Percy Jackson…" Luke began, ending his screams of pain, but still panting and bleeding everywhere. "I… will… end… you."

No, you won't.

I forced my voice to get louder and forced myself to _think_.

"Luke," I said, barely at a yell, straining to be heard over the wind and rain. But he turned around and Percy watched.

"Luke, if you love me, you will let him live." Yeah, he probably wouldn't listen to this logic, but I needed to buy some time.

"Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth…" Luke began. "Remember when we were little kids and I helped you get to Camp Half-Blood? When Grover was completely unhelpful, when Thalia was being bossy, when you were having trouble because you were so little, I was the one who took care of you, right? I can still do that now, Annabeth. Yes, I used to think of you as a little sister, but I know at that time you wanted me to be more than that! And I can now. Please, Annabeth, just think about it. You don't know what's best for you."

Percy was less than three feet behind him, but something was about to go wrong, I could feel it.

Percy tripped.

"But I do."

Luke spun around and stabbed Percy in the small of the back. His weak spot after his dip in the River Styx. Just like that.

Just like that…


	16. Chapter 26

**26 (Back to Percy)**

I don't know where I am. I am not afraid. Everything is cast in a blue shadow. I am underwater, I know that. I know what it feels like, to feel the water on my skin but to not feel it permeate my clothes. I wave my hands through it. I can touch it. The water is real. I see fish. I can touch them too.

But I can't see more than ten feet. It doesn't smell like the ocean. I don't smell. I don't taste salt on everything, in the air, all around me. I don't feel sand under my feet, though I see that they touch the bottom. There is no sound, just a constant hollow swoosh, like listening to the inside of a seashell, but muted.

A shark swims in front of me. I reach out to touch it but something stops me inches away. It does nothing. I continue to look at the water.

Nothing matters. Nothing exists but me and the water. I am the water. I am a part of it. It is in me, all over me, around me, running through me…

The shark comes around in front of me again. I reach out to touch it and I still can't. I can hear it move through the water, I realize.

I am not breathing. Not even breathing the water like I normally do. I do not need to breathe. I do nothing. I am in a crouched position at the bottom, rocks and coral around me. It's beautiful here, but I wish I could see farther than ten feet.

The shark comes around a third time and I suddenly realize it is circling me. It turns towards me and bares its teeth and I can suddenly hear. The noises bombard me, coming at me from everywhere. The smells cover everything: fish, dead fish, salt, sand, heat, cool. I feel things: sand between my toes, salt on my skin, sand and salt in my eyes, swim trunks brushing against my legs, hair floating around my head, water everywhere.

The shark comes closer and the water is everywhere, in my hands and in my heart and in my brain… and in my lungs. I breathe and it floods into my lungs and it's everywhere, consuming me, becoming me, eating me. The shark is in front of me and I am water and it goes through me and

I

am

gone.

I woke up in a hospital bed panting, heard the machine next to me beeping, felt Annabeth's hand in mine before I saw her beautiful face and realized I was surrounded by worried nurses and doctors watching the machines strapped all over me.

I think I just almost died. I think I did die. What just happened?

I tried to sit up and groaned like I have never groaned before. Annabeth pushed me back down gently and kept her hand on my chest for a moment, feeling my heartbeat. Then I felt the need to feel my heartbeat, too. I took the hand that was holding hers and moved both to my heart, my hand sandwiched between hers'.

"Annabeth…" I choked out, but barely any noise came out. I coughed and they brought me water. I choked out a meek "Thank you," and chugged it down. Do _not_ let a son of Poseidon get dehydrated. Seriously.

I knew then that I could talk again and tried again. "Annabeth, what happened to me?"

She waved the doctors away so she could really explain it.

"Luke killed you and… I don't know what happened after that. Luke knew where your Achilles' heel was. He stabbed you… there… and you died. I called 911 because my leg was still bleeding. They brought us to the hospital and they told me you were in a coma, the kind you might not wake up from. But you should've been dead. I've been crying for the past five days, thinking I was sitting next to my dead fiancé. And you're alive. I don't know what happened, but I am sure as Hades glad it did." I suddenly noticed her eyes were red and she just didn't look healthy. She broke down crying, leaned over with her head on my chest and just cried. And I was okay with that. I held her and stroked her hair and I think it helped me more than it helped her to just lie there and hold her, beautiful and real and all mine forever.

"What happened to Luke?" I couldn't help but ask after half an hour or forty five minutes of just lying there holding each other.

"He got away. After injuring you, I stabbed him again, more in the neck that time, probably in his Carotid artery. He should've died, too, but I know he didn't. He dissipated in gold light."

"But he didn't hurt you any more than your leg?"

Annabeth laughed. Why was she laughing? Was that a worried laugh? I tried to sit up and see if her leg was okay. It was bandaged. But I fell right back down.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked.

"Because you're in a hospital bed, waking up from a could-have-been-permanent coma, and you want to know if I'm okay. You're a dork, Seaweed Brain."

**AN: Hey guys! So I want to know what to do for the one year anniversary of LLPA, so I've got some options up on a poll on my profile, so go click my name up in the corner… yeah, you know you want to… go ahead, do it… and vote on the poll at the top of my profile! I know my story has probably not been important enough to you that you want to celebrate it, but I want to, because FanFiction is one of those constant and awesome things that helps me remember the things I love to do that will never change, two of those being reading and writing. So go vote and tell me what to do! Haha. Hope you like this chapter as much as I did writing it… :)**


	17. Chapter 27

**27**

Yeah, call us crazy, but I was way too out of it to trade off driving with Annabeth, and I was not going to let her drive us for hours on end. So we booked a red eye flight out of Midland International Airport for the next night (thank you Zeus) and packed up. I was going to miss the Prius, but we'd find something to drive. Public transit rocks, too.

Instead of being traceable and flying straight in to San Francisco International, we were flying up to Seattle, Washington, and driving down through Oregon all the way to San Fran. Craziness.

We sent up some crazy long prayers to Zeus that he wouldn't blast our planes out of the sky and boarded at 11:00 pm the next night. They let me out of the hospital saying I had no brain damage… alright, we waited for that information and then bailed.

We shuffled around on the plane and sat next to each other, Annabeth in the window and me on the aisle in that little set of two seats in the back of the plane. We shared Annabeth's iPod and I was glad we'd both brought them because mine was dead. How cliché can we get? We listened to "Airplanes." But really, it fit.

"I could use a dream, or a genie, or a wish, to go back to a place much simpler than this…"

No joke.

"Thank you, B.o.B. and Hayley Williams," I muttered with my eyes closed, leaning back in my seat. I still had a headache and pretty much an everything-ache, and I was incredibly tired for someone who slept for five days.

Annabeth laughed.

"Especially Hayley Williams." Such a Paramore fan. She grabbed my hand and I held it gratefully, wanting to sleep so, so much…

**(Annabeth)**

He was out in minutes, so I just stared out the window. Texas is incredibly pretty from a plane, especially at night. The lights of bigger cities shown bright and beautiful in the blackness. Thunderstorms crackled everywhere-please, Zeus, keep us safe-and lit the clouds purple. Gasps would erupt from tourists every once in a while. Yeah, Seattle just rains unexcitingly. This is big stuff right here. Right.

I began to consider just settling down somewhere totally random. I knew we couldn't pick Seattle-plane tickets showed us going there. Nothing totally by plane. But maybe something in the northwest…

But we hadn't lost Luke yet! I knew we couldn't stop until we'd lost him. But how long would that take? It had been weeks. Yeah, I'll be the first to admit I was getting a bit discouraged.

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars, I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now."

Can I wish on a plane I'm in?

Yeah, I think Hayley says I can.

Just when I was thinking about how hopeless our situation seemed to be becoming, and wondering if we'd ever get to get married, Percy woke up. We were still holding hands, despite his being asleep. He looked up at me and took the ear bud out. I did the same.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Wow. How does he do that?

"Well… not really. I was actually just thinking about how it doesn't seem like we're capable of losing Luke. It's insane! Everywhere we go, he's found us. I can't figure it out. We need to be more observant. We're obviously been watched somehow. We need to see through the Mist, see what's really happening… something is not right."

"You're right. But you make it sound so easy."

I stared out the window, quiet. Well, that was uplifting Percy. He leaned over and swept my hair around to one side of my head, kissing my neck where it was now bare. My mind went blank in the best way possible.

"We'll figure it out. And we will get married. Luke can do whatever he wants. We will win, and we will get married and have 2.4 adorable demigod children and a white picket fence."

"And a yellow kitchen," I added, sighing. He leaned back and closed his eyes again, bringing me back with him and pulling me in close with his arm around me. I took a last look at Texas before laying down on his chest, letting out breath I hadn't realized I was holding-earning a squeeze from Percy-and falling asleep.


	18. Chapter 28

28

We landed in Seattle and booked it right out of there after a little Grand Theft Auto. Dang, being a daughter of Athena has advantages. And I am only just now discovering some of these advantages.

I'm also discovering that I like driving a silver Audi. I like it very, very much. Enough that I drove from Seattle to Portland after 5 hours of sleep without thinking about it.

Actually, on the drive from Seattle, Washington to Portland, Oregon I was completely awake. Percy was, too. I don't know if it was all the coffee in Seattle—seriously, I've never seen so many coffee shops!—or what, but it was just a road trip again and it was really fun. Maybe because the west coast is so totally different from the east. So I decided it was time for a little sight-seeing in Portland.

Percy and I booked a hotel for one night downtown and decided to go on a date and just chill out for a little while. So I got out my white dress and make up and decided we'd walk around until we saw something that looked good and local. We ended up stopping at this place called Red Coach. It was real dark inside, warm feeling, with big leather booths and typical Portland-looking misfit clientele. Businessmen like any city, couples on dates, groups of friends that definitely belonged in the edgy Portland neighborhood of Hawthorne. I decided this had to be the best place for people watching ever, this entire city. So awesome.

The food was great, burgers and stuff like that but a step up. Really good. After that, some talking and laughing and a generally great time, Percy and I went for a walk around town-through the Park Blocks, a series of city blocks covered in grass and trees, along the waterfront of the Willamette River, up and down random streets, and had one of the most romantic kisses ever on a bridge above the river. We eventually found our way back to the hotel, full and happy and ready to sleep before I made us take a bit of a detour the next day that I knew Percy would love: driving down to Cali via Coastal Highway 101.

Everything went pretty normal. We went to breakfast at a great little coffee shop in the morning and headed out on our crazy excursion across the west coast. We decided to stay in Portland for the morning, no longer in a hurry. I knew once we got to highway 101 we just had to stay on it for a really, really long time, and it would actually take us right to San Francisco if we took the right turns once in a while. So we prepared to drive like crazy with our silver Audi-now sporting Oregon vanity plates reading "HLFBLD". Not a giveaway at all… I'll get rid of them someday…

Our morning in Portland was great, randomly sightseeing and even shopping a bit. Portland is a beautiful city. There's some great architecture, and I still can't get over the people! I would definitely not mind living around here.

Even the way to Highway 101 was beautiful. Oregon is so green! Percy and I talked a lot about random things, playing a game of "5 Million Questions" again until we could honestly say we knew everything there was to know about each other. After an hour he started to drive and I took a short unintentional nap…

**(Percy)**

Gods, I love oceans. All of them. Oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, occasionally even pools. They're awesome. And the Pacific is so different from the Atlantic. Absolutely beautiful. The Oregon Coast may have unpredictable weather, but something about the Pacific seemed… more pure and vast than the Atlantic back home. They're very different. You can tell you're looking at a different ocean. Don't get me wrong, I love them both, but I found myself wishing I lived on the west coast and looking for places to settle down, even knowing it was too far from camp.

We weren't in much of a hurry because we knew we'd covered a lot of ground. So I decided that, since we'd headed out in the afternoon, we'd stop somewhere for the night without going too far and go to a couple beaches. Annabeth woke up half an hour after she'd fallen asleep and I was cruising the Oregon Coast, looking out at oceans, forests, amazing ocean side towns, and the greenest state ever. She looked around a bit and said we should stop soon. So I drove about half an hour more and looked around until we drove past two big parking lots on either side of the highway and signs for a beach that you had to walk down to through a national park.

Oh yes.

So I stopped in the next nice-looking town, Manzanita, and booked a hotel room there for two nights. Getting adventurous, I know.

We settled in and I excitedly decided we were going back to that beach, so we put on jeans and camp t shirts and headed to Short Sands beach.

It was the best trip to the beach ever. The Pacific is so much more fun to walk in than the Atlantic. We took the ten minute hike down through gorgeous trees and greenery, a beautiful flurry of deep, lush greens and warm browns that I can't even begin to describe. We followed a meandering, crystal clear, loudly rushing river just off the trail, crossed a rickety bridge, climbed over driftwood and finally found ourselves on a stunning beach. It was less than a mile across, with huge rock faces on either side extending into the ocean like the place was closed off from the world. You could see the ocean straight out as far as the eye can see, glittering and blue with waves cresting white foam every few feet. Rocks of all colors a rock can be-black, every shade of grey, greens, blues, reds, even purples-extended across most of the beach and down about 30 feet from the forest edge, practically a cliff face with trees growing off at all angles. The sand was light tan and perfectly imperfect, driftwood and rocks and shell bits and twigs spread all over the place. We raced down to the water and walked hand in hand in gentle, ankle deep waves. Our jeans were rolled up, camp t shirts and sweatshirts on (Oregon's beaches aren't exactly warm at 7:00PM), shoes left back at a rock. _This_, I thought,_ is what I want the rest of my life to be like. Just this._

"I know,' Annabeth said.

"How? How on earth can you read my mind like that?"

"Well," she began, swinging our arms more as she spoke, looking around in wonder at the picturesque beach. "I don't know exactly what you thought. But it was something about how amazing this is, how amazing it feels. Because I am loving this just as much as you."

I stopped, turned her around so she was facing me and we were facing opposite ends of the beach, the sunset to my left and the beach to my right. I held both her hands, then slipped my arms around her waist and just held her, held her like never before.

"This place is amazing," I told her, rubbing my hands across her back. Her arms were wrapped around me as well, her head on my chest.

"I know," she said. "It's beautiful."

Small talk. Stupid small talk.

"Annabeth, I love you. So much. Please _never_ forget that. If you ever think I don't love you anymore, please, just ask me and I'll tell you that I love you. Because I love you so, so much."

She smiled like only she can smile, told me she loved me and buried her head in my chest again. But not before I had kissed her. For a long, long time.

I didn't know it at the time, but that place really was perfect. And always will be. I didn't want to leave, but two days of adventures and we were back on Highway 101, on the way to San Francisco, wearing Wanda's Café t-shirts (Best. Breakfasts. Ever.) and ready to hide for the rest of our lives… oh, joy.


End file.
